Improved Recovery Week articles from November 1997

Improved Recovery Week archives from November 1997

Shell, Kinder Morgan form new CO2 marketing, supply company; expansion to other U.S. regions part of goal. (Shell CO2 Co., Kinder Morgan Energy Partners L.P.)
November 3, 1997... The ability of Houston-based Shell C[O.sub.2] Co. to explore for, produce, market and transport carbon dioxide for EOR projects throughout the continental U.S. was expanded last week with the announcement that it had formed a partnership with...

Conoco farms out Queensland coalbed methane operation to Australian company. (Conoco Inc.; Boral Energy Resources Ltd.)
November 3, 1997... Major multi-national oil companies seem to be amenable to letting smaller companies develop existing coalbed methane reserves they've developed in Australia. Houston-based Conoco Inc. last week said an Australian company, Boral Energy...

Texaco plans to use hydraulic submersible pumps to help up Captain field heavy oil. (Texaco North Sea U.K. Ltd.)
November 3, 1997... Texaco North Sea (U.K.) Ltd. is pinning hope on hydraulically driven submersible pumps to provide innovative technology which will boost output from its Captain field in the North Sea. As reported earlier, the company, as operator at Captain,...

Louisiana company acquires new Utah, South Texas properties; plans using BAPCO tool. (Environmental Remediation Holding Corp.; Coconino S.M.A. Inc.; Bass American Petroleum Corp.)
November 3, 1997... A Louisiana-based company specializing in environmental remediation is quickly becoming a producing company, as well, primarily due to recent deployment of a special proprietary short-radius horizontal drilling/completion tool. Environmental...

Anadarko, Mobil E&P U.S. form strategic alliance to exploit deep Hugoton prospects. (Anadarko Petroleum Corp.; Mobil Exploration and Producing U.S. Inc.)
November 3, 1997... Using new 3-D seismic acquisition/processing, new drilling technology, and hydraulic fracturing completion methods, a new oil company strategic alliance aims to exploit and develop potential hydrocarbon zones below the shallow gas production of...

'Best-laid plans' of Fountain Oil delayed as well as problems, red tape hold up FSU projects. (Fountain Oil Inc.; Former Soviet Union projects)
November 3, 1997... Officials of Fountain Oil Inc. may be harkening back to the poem about "the best-laid plans of mice and men," when it comes to their operations in the Former Soviet Union and what used to be the Eastern Bloc. Fountain, based in Houston and...

India sets the stage for EOR program at Neelam; ONGC multi-disciplinary development teams formed. (Indian government-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp.)
November 10, 1997... India's state-owned off company, Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC), has commissioned U.S. reservoir management specialists DeGoyler and MacNaughton to carry out an evaluation of the troubled Neelam oil field off Mumbai (formerly Bombay). ONGC...

Texaco's buyout of Monterey Resources gets nod; output creates giant heavy oil operation. (Texaco Inc.; Monterey Resources Inc.)
November 10, 1997... Shareholders of Bakersfield, Calif.-based Monterey Resources Inc. last week approved the $1.6 billion merger of their 11-month-old publicly held company into Texaco Inc. Holders of Monterey Resources Stock will receive Texaco common stock for...

Tipperary adds another 5% in Aussie coalgas project; pipeline link made, awaiting sales. (Tipperary Corp.; Queensland, Australia)
November 10, 1997... Denver-based Tipperary Corp. said last week it had acquired an additional 5% working interest in the Comet Ridge Coalbed Methane Project in Queensland, Australia. The purchase, which will cost Tipperary US$2 million cash and an US$885,000 note...

Aera Energy to reprise steaming of Bolivar property at N. Midway-Sunset; slim holes set. (thermal oil recovery)
November 10, 1997... The new operating company formed by Shell Oil Co. and Mobil Corp. in California is losing no time in applying thermal oil recovery technology in their combined producing properties in the Golden State. Aera Energy LLC plans to give another...

Second zone in Louisiana wells may improve Chesapeake's picture; more wells planned. (Chesapeake Energy Corp.)
November 10, 1997... Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp. may have reported sharply lower earnings for the first quarter of fiscal 1998, ended Sept. 30, but the company says a modest production increase, coupled with future new horizontal drilling and...

Scimitar signs agreement with Egypt's national oil company to proceed with heavy oil field development. (Scimitar Hydrocarbons Corp.: Egyptian General Petroleum Co.)
November 17, 1997... A unit of Calgary-based Scimitar Hydrocarbons Corp. recently signed a heads of agreement with Egyptian General Petroleum Co. (EGPC) to proceed with development of a heavy off field in Egypt. The company, Scimitar Production International Ltd.,...

Recent coalbed methane strike bodes well for India as operators await bidding in Dec.
November 17, 1997... India's ambition to become a major producer of coalbed methane on a par with the United States and Australia could soon be realized. Last September, excited off officials proclaimed loudly that a chance discovery of coalbed methane by the Oil...

Plains Resources enters thermal EOR marketplace in California. (oil field in California)
November 17, 1997... Houston-based Plains Resources has made a deal to acquire, for stock and stock options, a heavy oil field in California from units of Shell Oil Co. The assets to be acquired consist of a 100% working interest and 94% revenue interest in Arroyo...

Saba suspends Calif. horizontal drilling; program called successful, but water problems delay it. (Saba Petroleum Co.)
November 17, 1997... Saba Petroleum Co. of Santa Maria, Calif., has canceled all development drilling on its producing properties in the Cat Canyon field in northern Santa Barbara County, Calif. pending a review of water-coning problems encountered with several...

Chesapeake expands in Mid-Continent, Canada; adds significant proven gas reserves. (Chesapeake Energy Corp.)
November 17, 1997... In still more moves to extend producing horizons beyond its considerable activity in the Austin Chalk horizontal play in Texas/ Louisiana, Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp. last week announced two transactions that will do just that:...

Harken spuds Colombian horizontal; first in vertically fractured zone. (Harken Energy Corp.)
November 17, 1997... Dallas-based Harken Energy Corp. last week spudded its Catalina Well No. 1 in the Middle Magdalena Basin of Colombia, the first horizontal wellbore drilled in a vertically fractured reservoir in that country. The Catalina No. 1 is the first of...

Fifth-generation offshore rigs needed, says expert.
November 17, 1997... Drilling experience in the Atlantic margin off northwest Europe has indicated that new-build fifth-generation rigs will be needed to cope with expansion in exploration, according to Reading & Bates regional vice-president Tim Juran. Plans to...

The good, the bad and the miscible: PRRC study reveals CO2 as a maturing EOR process. (New Mexico Petroleum Recovery Research Center; carbon dioxide injection)
November 17, 1997... A recent study of a representative group of producing companies who currently operate carbon dioxide injection projects in the U.S. and Canada reveals that while C[O.sub.2] floods work well, their profitability could be heightened with reservoir...

Suncor's 1998 capital spending estimated at C$1 billion; lion's share goes to oil sands, C$145 aimed at Aussie shale.(Suncor Energy)
November 24, 1997... When its estimated 1998 capital spending program was announced last week, spokesmen Suncor Energy said the lion's share - more than C$500 million - will go to its off sands business. But the company said it also expects to spend C$145...

Emerging technologies conference draws crowd with message about industry changes.(Emerging Technologies Energy Conference)
November 24, 1997... More than 1,000 off and gas producers gathered in Houston last week to hear some frank discussion about the challenges presented today by dramatic ongoing changes in exploration and production technology. The producers attended the first...

Amoco's cheaper short-radius horizontal drilling technique spawns two new projects.
November 24, 1997... The use of the short-radius horizontal drilling technology developed originally by Amoco Corp.'s Tulsa, Okla., Technology Center figures big in two recent field development stories. Dallas-based Cotton Valley Resources Corp. has acquired...

Environmental groups call for debate on Cantarell nitrogen injection project in Mexico.(Petroleos Mexicanos)
November 24, 1997... It was probably wishful thinking by Mexico's national oil company that its recently announced offshore nitrogen injection program would come off without a hitch. The idea that it could order a US$1 billion plant to supply nitrogen for its...

GRI furthers study of borehole instability in shales; says fact so far disproves old theories.(Gas Research Institute)
November 24, 1997... Chicago-based Gas Research Institute has decided to extend by two years its study of borehole stability problems encountered in wells drilled in shale formations. The tendency of the walls of a hole drilled into a shale formation to...

Mobil Canada to drill cores to prove Karl Lease resource.
November 24, 1997... In other recent oil sands announcements, Mobil Oil Canada said it is initiating a core-drilling program in the next few weeks at its oil sands lease in the Fort McKay area of Alberta about 47 miles north of Fort McMurray. The company said...